Picking-and-packing processes, in which ordered goods are retrieved from a storage location in a storage facility or warehouse and packed into a container for delivery to a customer, are commonplace in many industries. In particular, the online grocery retail sector is rapidly growing and is becoming increasingly reliant on automation of parts of the process to increase efficiency and to achieve the desired throughput of orders.
A typical online grocery order will include a large number of different products, each with differing shape, size, weight, fragility and perishability. These products must be packed carefully into suitable packaging for delivery to customers. It is convenient to use vest-type carrier bags made from plastics film material for this purpose, because such bags are low-cost and space efficient and are suitable for holding almost all of the different products in a typical grocery order. Furthermore, bags of this type have integral handles which not only facilitate convenient carrying of the filled bags as part of a delivery to a customer, for example, but also enable the bags to be securely placed and held within a container, for picking and packing of products in an order picking system.
During the preparation of the order, it is often necessary or advantageous to ensure that the bags are held open in a predetermined location on a production line arrangement to facilitate the placing or dropping of items into these bags. For example, this location can be inside a container, such as a rigid-walled box or crate, known in the art as a tote, that can be transported between sites within a warehouse on conveyor belts or by other means within a warehouse, and loaded onto a van for delivery to customers. Alternatively, bags can be held open on static racks in picking locations where product may be added, or on a conveyor arrangement that moves the bags through one or multiple picking locations.
While the opening, filling and sealing of plastic bags as part of a packaging process for bulk goods is a well-established technology, the handling of plastic vest-type plastic carrier bags with handles in an automated system is not well-known. In particular, significant challenges are presented when attempting to apply known technology to the automatic handling of bags of this type in a high-throughput industrial-scale process of the type desired to increase the efficiency of online grocery retail operations. One particular challenge is the weak structural integrity of plastics vest-type carrier bags which makes reliable automated manipulation technically difficult.
Against this background, it would be desirable to provide apparatus capable of handling, opening and placing bags, in particular vest-type carrier bags, in an automated system suitable for high-throughput industrial-scale use.